Layer-2 networks are increasingly being deployed in environments that stress their capabilities. To address these challenges, new protocols and architectures are being deployed in connection with layer-2 networks. One protocol being deployed is Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) protocol, which implements certain Layer-3 routing techniques, including shortest paths and multipathing, within a Layer-2 framework. One architecture being deployed is cloud switching. Cloud switching architectures (or simply “cloud switches”) typically employ a large number of individual switches, interconnected by a high-speed interconnect, and administered collectively as virtual switches. A cloud switch may provide thousands of external ports to support demanding layer-2 networks.
To provide increased performance, it is desirable to implement TRILL protocol in conjunction with a cloud switch architecture. However, a number of issues may be encountered that can introduce inefficiency. One such issue is the possibility of suboptimal inter-cloud switch domain forwarding. Another issue is inefficient selection of nexthops when utilizing TRILL's multipathing capabilities. Accordingly there is a need for improved techniques that may allow TRILL and cloud switch architectures to better interoperate.